The Welsh NHS is under a coordinated attack from Conservative Central Office in London in a ‘grubby’ political campaign, First Minister Carwyn Jones said yesterday.

The Labour leader in Wales went on the offensive ahead of the party’s conference in Llandudno, warning that the morale of Welsh doctors and nurses was being seen as just ‘collateral damage’ in a ‘war on Wales’.

His outburst follows a series of criticisms of the Welsh NHS in the Commons from Prime Minister David Cameron, alongside questions raised by Tory MPs over standards of the service in Wales.

He was backed by Labour’s shadow Welsh secretary Owen Smith who accused Tory MPs and ministers of using ‘scant evidence inference and innuendo’ to smear Wales as a means to attack Labour by proxy.

The First Minister said: “We are seeing the start of a Tory war on Wales.

“Not on Welsh Labour, not on the Welsh Government but we are seeing a coordinated attack from Conservative Central Office, via some London papers, attacking Wales as a nation.

“The reality is the UK General Election campaign has started already and the Welsh name is being dragged through the mud and they see Wales as collateral damage.”

David Cameron outside 10 Downing Street

It was ‘perfectly proper’ in a democracy for the Welsh Conservatives and other parties to hold the Welsh Labour government to account, he admitted.

“But these are attacks from outside and they are clearly trying to destroy Wales’s name in order to satisfy their mown grubby political ends.

“And I’m not prepared to sit back and take that.”

Mr Jones agreed that there were legitimate areas of debate in Wales, particularly over its poor performance in comparative international PISA tests in education.

“With health it’s very difficult to compare the figures. There are areas in health where we do far better (than England) cancer waiting times, far better. The fact the 20,000 people living in England choose to register with GPs in Wales, the fact we are treating 7,000 people every year in our A&E departments. There are plenty of things we can say are good about the Welsh NHS.

“The costs of care are rocketing in England, coming down in Wales.

“The important point is that these are issues that are devolved and are properly raised in the Assembly. Why are they being raised in Parliament which has no role in terms of health and education in Wales?

“The reason why it’s happening is that there is a coordinated attempt to do Wales down to help the Conservative election campaign next year.

“How would people in London react if they were being constantly criticised by somebody outside of England, they would soon react very badly to that.

“Yes, there has to be close scrutiny by political parties in Wales of the Welsh Government’s record, that’s democracy.

“But a sustained period of criticism, with some of the London papers saying Wales’s problems are all to do with the Welsh language. This is going back to the days of 1847 and the Blue Books. This is nothing to do with Labour it’s to do with attacking Wales.”

He denied ever setting out to compare Wales and England in political clashes and claimed ‘we shouldn’t spend out entire time saying we are better than anywhere else’.

“Unfortunately, that’s where the UK Government has taken us. So we will fight back with our own statistics.

“My view is I’m First Minister of Wales, there are people out there who support me, there are people who don’t. My job is to stand up for all of them and at the moment they’re all being hammered by Conservative Central Office. And it will get a lot worse before the UK general election.

“The constant criticism was depressing the morale of doctors and nurses in the NHS but quite frankly, they don’t care about that.

“It would mean nothing to them if morale went through the floor , what’s important to them is winning the General Election in 2015 and Welsh doctors and Welsh nurses are just collateral damage.”

Shadow Welsh secretary Owen Smith said: “I think it is outrageous that a party here at Westminster that purports to be a British Government can think it legitimate to attack as viciously as the Tories have with such scant evidence and with inference and innuendo and smear a part of Britain that they are meant to be jointly responsible for but which they simply see as a means to attack Labour by proxy.

“Contrast this with what Cameron said when he came in, in my constituency, when he said we need a new respect agenda.

“Well, he has showed absolutely no respect for Wales at any point.”

A UK Government source said: “Mr Smith's hysterical outburst betrays the pressure that the Labour party are under, now that their mismanagement of public services in Wales is attracting the attention of the mainstream media.

“Rather than blaming the messengers Mr Smith would do well to speak to his colleagues in the Welsh Government and urge them to do more to deliver the quality of public service that the people of Wales need and are entitled to.”

Harman: Wales tourism backed

Harriet Harman

The Welsh Government acted quickly to get tourism back on its feet after devastating winter storms, deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman said.

The shadow culture, media and sport secretary Harriet Harman said the message was sent out that Wales tourist trade was ‘open for business’ this Easter.

Speaking ahead of the Welsh Labour conference in Llandudno, Ms Harman said: “People felt in the tourist industry in England they had been forgotten about.

“Tourism is a vital force for our seaside towns, whether in Wales or in other parts of the UK. But some parts of the tourist industry have been played a difficult hand, contending with the recession and more recently with floods.”

The Welsh Government has prioritised flood defences, and acted quickly to give tourist businesses in areas hardest hit extra funding to get back up and running.

The Welsh Government announced a £1.6m storm fund for tourist businesses in the worst storm-hit areas.

It had also protected funding for flood defences during the current Assembly term at £240m whereas in England flood defences were cut by £100m in real terms over the course of the UK Parliament.

“The team in Wales has said despite the global financial crisis, they are going to be optimistic about Wales. From the coalition government at Westminster, all we hear is you are going to have to put up with terrible austerity,” she added.

Mary Wimbury, Welsh Labour candidate for Aberconwy in 2015, said: “The difference in approach to the recent floods by the UK government and the Welsh Labour government could not have been starker.

“Labour has invested, the Tories have cut and put at risk thousands of homes and businesses.”